Hey, you – yes, you! It is time to quit “doomscrolling” and fretting about the future ahead for a minute.
We are already a fair few weeks into 2022, but let us not forget the great environmental successes from the last year.
We have compiled a list of last year’s most important and most inspiring news, so take some time to celebrate the environmental wins with us.
- A clean-up installation – known affectionately as “Jenny” – pulled 20,000 pounds of garbage from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of floating debris approximately twice the size of Texas.
- Indigenous groups were able to negotiate the return of traditionally stewarded and stolen lands, allowing them to stop further destruction to the environment. The Passamaquoddy Tribe was able to reacquire over 150 acres of land in rural eastern Maine, and the Lower Sioux Indian Community reacquired 120 acres of land in Minnesota.
- The world's most extensive carbon-capture plant, known as the “Orca Factory”, was opened in Iceland by the company Climeworks. The plant is able to capture carbon dioxide directly from the air and has the capacity to remove roughly 4,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
- A new Marine Protected Area (MPA) was announced, alongside a brand-new MPA guide, which is set to improve ocean conservation.
- The oil supergiant Shell decided to pull out of the Cambo oil field, a controversial development located in the west of Shetland, following the Dutch court’s verdict that Shell is liable for causing a deal of damage to the climate.
- The Great American Outdoors Act was passed in July, successfully granting public lands – including forests and refuges – nearly $10 billion.
- Indigenous-led resistance managed to block as many as 21 fossil fuel projects across the U.S. and Canada. According to Dallas Goldtoot, the organizer of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), this means much more than making an impact on the environment and is about "fundamentally changing how we see the world".
- In Mexico, a prohibition ban was passed on genetically modified corn, as well as complete phasing out of the herbicide glyphosate by the end of 2024. This is a huge victory when it comes to reducing the risk of harm to Mexico’s agricultural biodiversity and its ecosystem and moving the country closer towards self-sufficiency.
- As a part of COP26, the Glasgow Leader’s Declaration on Forest and Land Use was signed by a number of country leaders, committing themselves to stopping deforestation by the end of 2030.
- A revolutionary movement set to endow legal rights to nature continued to gain momentum throughout 2021, alongside lawyers coining the first legal definition for the term “ecocide”.
If you are passionate about the environment and just so happen to be the owner of an ethical, vegan, or social good brand, why not get your business listed on Miigle+? We are dedicated to re-inventing the contemporary, consumerist world by developing the world’s most extensive database of brands who put ethics and social responsibility first and foremost and connecting them with customers who truly care.
Photo by Ron Lach
